Genre
Synopsis
This is living history told by interwoven stories of a diverse group of people within the skating community. The past is their present. They are living it every day because they understand the importance of skating and community. I am one of the stories because I grew up in my family's roller rink in the Chicago area. Sadly it closed years ago and is now a gun store and shooting range. I realized there's so much I didn't know about skating, as I explore the full history from early skate design, to over 5000 rinks in the US after World War II (including my family's), to the disco era, a decline since the mid-90s, and finally the present-day resurgence during covid, including skating as part of the Superbowl Halftime show. Roller rinks are a welcoming place and skating has always been the #1 participant sport, we ALL SKATE - but the rinks themselves are fading away including my family's rink, which is heartbreaking when we visit, it's now a gun store and shooting range, which shows how much our values have changed over time. But many inspiring people all over the country are keeping skating alive and rinks thriving because they understand the value to their communities and importance to our mental and physical health. This film is a deep dive into skating history, skating culture, and skating community.
Bio
April Wright is an award-winning filmmaker who fell in love with movies at drive-ins and decaying movie palaces growing up in Chicago and Miami. She brings a fresh and creative approach to her narrative projects and documentaries, and is drawn to material inspired by real people and events, especially underdog stories from an underrepresented point of view.
April is completing her new doc “All Skate” about the history of roller skating and rinks, which is very personal since her family’s business was a roller rink. She’s working on several new docs and narrative film and television projects. Her pilot script “Fear of Flying” was a semi-finalist for the Women in Film / Blacklist lab in 2024, and the prestigious Humanitas “New Voices” which honors film and television writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced, meaningful way. April’s doc “Back to the Drive-in” had a theatrical release with per screen average second only to Top Gun Maverick in 2022, and is now on Amazon Prime. It was featured in Variety and won Film Threat’s 2023 ‘Best Film about Movies or Filmmaking.’
April loved directing “Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story,” exec produced by Michelle Rodriguez, which was awarded Best Documentary of 2020 by the National Women Film Critics Circle and nominated for the 2021 global ‘Cinema for Peace Award for Female Empowerment.’ April directed a drift car racing sequence with Michelle and her amazing stunt driver from the Fast series.
